Takeaway from Maroush via hungryhouse.co.uk

I visited Maroush on Vere Street a couple of years ago (read my blog post on that here), where I enjoyed the food but was disappointed by the somewhat brisk service. I haven’t been back since, but last weekend I decided to order their takeaway and enjoy a night in with my flatmate, as we indulged in some trashy Netflix (side note: did you know that Usher has a guest appearance in She’s All That?).

If I am craving a greasy takeaway, my first port of call would probably be Just Eat, whilst Deliveroo offers takeaway from more upmarket places such as Carluccio’s and Ping Pong. Hungryhouse is somewhere in between. However, they recently set themselves apart by releasing their top 500 takeaways in the UK, which have been rated based on their customer ratings, food hygiene, re-order rate and delivery speed. Maroush came in at number 10, so I thought I’d give it another chance!

Not so crispy falafel

The hungryhouse website is nicely set up and very easy to navigate. However, the first thing that struck me was the prices – they were the same as in the restaurant, which was quite disappointing, as I feel this defeats the point of takeaway!

As I couldn’t justify spending £5.50 on takeaway hummus, we decided to combine our order with some supermarket-bought hummus (not something I normally do, but my blender broke recently so I couldn’t make my own!). We focused mainly on meat dishes (with the exception of falafel) and got the soujoc (spicy sausages in tomato sauce), kibbeh (deep fried lamb parcels) and the mixed grill. We received abundant pitta bread, which is always a plus, and there were various sauces that came with the dishes, too.

Left: Falafel, right: mixed grill

Hungryhouse is a great service; the website is easy to use and they have a wide variety of restaurants. Delivery is free if your order is over £20 and the food arrived in under 20 minutes, which was very impressive! However, I was a bit disappointed with Maroush’s food, as it was average, but not stellar. The meat in the mixed grill was a bit dry, the falafel wasn’t that crispy. The kibbeh was very good, but the rest of it just wasn’t quite up to scratch. I got a takeaway wrap from Yalla Yalla recently, and just one bite proved to me yet again that it is my favourite Lebanese in London (so far!).

The next time I am craving takeaway though, I will go to hungryhouse rather than Just Eat, as the quality of restaurants is certainly higher, and their Top Takeaways list has some other interesting restaurants I’d like to try. I like their website, and they also have an app which makes the prospect of takeaway almost too easy!

What’s your favourite takeaway website? What sort of cuisine do you normally order?